“While we share concerns over the details of the plan and how it will affect our day to day lives, we are cautiously optimistic about the application of sovereignty,” said a group of activists and leaders in Judea and Samaria.

History is not the logical unfolding of events in an orderly manner. It’s more like a kaleidoscope. One tilt and the picture changes dramatically.

We’ve experienced just such a tilt and are living an era of uncertainty and ambiguity. Ambiguity is the hallmark of facing challenges and waiting for an unknown new state of affairs to emerge. We are bombarded with conflicting information about the future. We wonder when life will return to some semblance of a new near normal. Some say June; others, mid-summer; some not until fall or even later. We don’t know who’s right. Jobs, finances, mental health, social contact – these are all on the line as the customary rhythms of life are suspended. Ambiguity breeds uncertainty, fear and anxiety.

Ironically, this lockdown is taking place while we count the Omer, the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot, marking the days, making them count. Like our predicament, the daily count is a time for reflection on who we are, our core values and convictions, what keeps us going. But with counting the Omer, we know when it will end – on the 50th day, with Shavuot, the giving of the Torah. Not so with our situation however. It’s impossible to predict when “normal” life will resume. We don’t know and that ambiguity is enormously frustrating because we cannot imagine the landscape of a post-lockdown life.

Ambiguity crops up in unexpected places.

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We sense that the time we are living in is unique … but that’s not entirely true. The Exodus out of Egypt and then into the Promised Land was not just spent wandering aimlessly around the arid Sinai peninsula and the Negev for 40 years. The Israelites spent years at Kadesh-Barnea, a site likely somewhere between Eilat and Beersheva to the northwest. Like us, these ancient ancestors probably wondered when the time hanging around that oasis would end. There wasn’t much to do there amidst date palm trees and water: looking after flocks, preparing meals, scouting out better territory than rocky desert, complaining to Moses, negotiating family feuds. The older generation who remembered life in Egypt were dying off – Miriam, Moses’ sister died there for instance – just like our elderly in long-term care facilities. Boredom easily sets in – how many date recipes are there?

Actors from the Netflix series Fauda

Where is this Promised Land? they likely cried out. When will this harsh existence end? They didn’t know. Like us, the ancient Israelites probably hated this ambiguity full of fear and anxiety.

During this time of waiting, many of us turn to Netflix and to the suspenseful action adventure of Fauda, season 3. This immensely popular series helps take our minds off immediate problems. But as a drama it is also ambiguous. We cheer on the good guys. But who are the good guys, really? The answer is not all that clear.

Along the way disturbing questions crop up. The hero, Danon, infiltrates a Palestinian family in Hebron, gaining their trust almost as a family member and encouraging their son Bashar into realizing his dreams as a boxer. He uses Bashar and betrays his family, violating the trust he has gained, to gain information on his true prey: Abu Fauzi. There is violence and suffering on both sides. Close-knit Israeli and Palestinian families are torn apart by events beyond their control – Doron’s family by his long absences and the nature of his work; Bashar’s, by conflict and deception. Fauda presents a morally ambiguous portrayal of Israelis and Palestinians. It’s not all one-sided.

As the plot unfolds, innocents are killed. While we are riveted by dangerous covert action in Gaza, we are saddened by the outcome back in Israel. It was not what we expected and not at all what we had hoped for. Bashar has been turned and like his father before him, he becomes a terrorist. And that’s likely where Season 4 will begin.

Where is this plot going? The cycle of killing and revenge seems endless. There is death, suffering and immense pain on both sides. Are there really any “good guys”?

Poster for the Netflix series Fauda

We wonder when there will be peace in that vital region. We don’t know. And that fear and uncertainty adds to our anxiety.

Fauda also shows us the careful and cautious cooperation that exists between the Israelis and the Arab authorities in the West Bank. With Gaza, however, there’s only confrontation – on both sides. This adds to our ambiguity and uncertainty about the future. Perhaps a two-state solution remains viable: an Israel and a Palestine, side by each. Perhaps it’s time to think of an alternative, maybe a three-state solution: Israel, West Bank Palestine and Gaza. Gaza and the West Bank differ economically and socially.

Many Arabs from the West Bank work in Israel. Portions of the West Bank could be the nucleus of a Palestinian state. But Gaza is different – no cross-border cooperation and no cross-overs for work. Just a sense of stifling confinement on the one hand, and rockets on the other. The arguments and the hostilities go back and forth. No one can even begin to predict the end of the cycle of violence.

We live in the ambiguity of not knowing, both in life and in the series we watch on the screen while waiting for the next tilt of the kaleidoscope.

An award-winning teacher, Barrie Wilson PhD is Professor Emeritus & Senior Scholar, Humanities and Religious Studies, York University. He has taught courses on Introduction to the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Christianity, Jesus and Paul. His bestselling book, How Jesus Became Christian (2008) received the Joseph and Faye Tanenbaum Prize for History at the 2009 Canadian Jewish Book Awards. Appearances on several episodes of The Naked Archeologist followed along with many documentaries. Appropriate for these turbulent times, his new book – Searching for the Messiah — will be published in Canada and the USA in August. Barrie is a member of Beth-Tzedec Congregation, Toronto.

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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.

We do news differently!

Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.

We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.

But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!

Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.

Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.